Posted by
jarhead on Friday, June 29, 2007 9:55:15 AM
So the bill is now defeated or at least shelved for the next few years. From its supporters we hear that we have settled for the pre-existing status quo. Why?
This bill trumpeted to be about enforcement as much as it was about amnesty. The resistence to it has been almost exclusively about enforcement and the American people's lack of trust in the government to enforce, either because of a lack of will and, as a direct result of 21 years of neglected enforcement, a lack of capacity as well. So why status quo? Because as we suspected all along there was no intent to enforce. If there is any serious intent on the part of the ivory tower crowd inside the beltway to regain the trust of the American people then start enforceing. Crack down in the work place, crack down at the border and build the fence. I know the systems to enforce were either never put in place or have atrophied from lack of use so this may take a little time. Can the focus be only on enforcement?
I beleive that with 12 million folks here working at one job or another and unemployment are record lows we may actually need some of the folks. We don't need them working under the table, not paying their fair share along with their employers and burdening our emergency rooms and other social services. We need these folks out in the open, properly paid and properly paying. What should be on the table now is legislation to help those employers who have been doing this wrong for 21 years to come in out of the cold, identify their needs and employ these folks with proper pay and benefits. And that means something that looks at a guest worker program.
So what's next? A heavy dose of enforcement coupled with a recognition that we might just need some of these folks and a, therefore, a way for them to be here properly paid and properly paying their way. What we don't need or want or deserve is the status quo.